I took the Expo Line to downtown Santa Monica, and then walked a few minutes to SaMoHi. As soon as I got outside the venue, I ran into my state senator and state assemblymember - this was a first for me at a Weird Al show. They both thanked me for coming, as it was a big fundraiser for our school district's arts program. My state senator introduced me to a family friend (about 9 or 10) who is a big Weird Al fan, or as he claimed, the biggest Weird Al fan ever. He showed off his Mandatory Fun shirt, and I showed off my Comedy Bang Bang hoodie which he freaked out about.

My seat was in the second row, center, of the balcony. Considering it was a high school auditorium, this was an incredible seat. The show started a little after 7 with some opening remarks from the host, followed by the superintendent, followed by the MC who was a local radio personality. The first opening act was Venice, apparently a westside staple according to their band bio. Accompanying them, along with every other act that night, was about 50 student musicians from the high school. There was an orchestra and chorus on stage for the entire night. Venice was followed by Richard Page, the singer from Mister Mister, who sang "Broken Wings" and a few more songs. After this, I was expecting Al to come out. Instead, we got a live auction to raise more money for the arts. They had a real auctioneer there, and they sold a few guitars signed by every performer as well as a few other items. They raised several thousand dollars. After this, Al? No, it was Venice again. This time, they did a set of three covers.

Finally, after Venice Redux, the host introduces Al. He comes out in a green Hawaiian shirt without Al's Band. Instead, he's backed up by Venice and the student musicians. They perform Tacky, and Al starts on the stage and then makes his way into the crowd. I couldn't see most of this from the second level but I basically knew what he was doing, so I just listened to the orchestral arrangement and tried to peer down for whenever he was in my field of vision. Lots of good crowd gags in line with what we have seen during Tacky and WBUL in the past. Additionally, three female members of the chorus dressed in their tackiest outfits took center stage to sing the female backing vocals live. After this, Al says "well, we're running a little late tonight, but I think we have time for one more song" and he launches into The Saga Begins. This is a pretty straightforward performance, no robe, although I noticed one or two light sabers in the chorus. The entire group of student musicians had been trained to do freeze poses during "soon I'm gonna be a Jedi" like the Stormtroopers usually do.

Then, that was it! Two songs!! Al was gone, then another round of auctioning, followed by headliner Michael MacDonald who had way more stage time than Al. He and his wife performed about 8-10 songs. Finally, at the end, Michael invited Richard Page and Al back onto the stage to perform "Takin' It To The Streets." Al had a bit for this: everyone else stayed on stage performing in a collabo-jam as you'd expect, but Al was off stage and only ran on at the last second before the chorus to sing "takin' it to the streets! takin' it to the streets!" in a shared mic with the singer of Venice. As soon as the chorus ended, he ran off stage again, and then he repeated this gag for each chorus. Finally, the entire gang performed "With A Little Help From My Friends" with Al playing accordion. They even let him sing the second line, "lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song, I will try not to sing out of key." This was a really nice six-minute-plus jam with all of the musicians performing together. So even though Al's set was just two songs, he got to come back to do two songs that he's never done live before, so that was a cool ending.

After the show, I was heading back to the Expo Line when I passed the faculty parking lot and noticed Al's car parked there. I kept walking and saw the artist's entrance. As I walked by there, by total coincidence, Al walked out that door. I called out to him, and he gave me a big hug. I asked why he only played two songs, and he looked over his shoulder and told me that he had originally planned to play Jackson Park Express as the third song but at the last minute, the backing band reached out to say they didn't want to learn it and would rather do another parody. So instead it was just two songs... Thanks a lot, Venice!! Al then asked if I was going to the VIP After Party, and I told him I'm not a VIP, just a P. He said oh, well how about some Thin Mints? They don't have those at the after party! And he offered me two Thin Mint girl scout cookies, which he was for some reason holding a box of. I told him I had my Squeeze Box preorder, and he said we can expect the Medium Rarities tracklist to come out any day now. At that point, someone called on him to head out so they could go to the afterparty.

It was a fun show, and I was glad to support our school district's arts program while seeing Al. This marks my 18th show!